Famous Father Girl

A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein

By: Jamie Bernstein

Narrated by: Jamie Bernstein

Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

The oldest daughter of revered composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein offers a rare look at her father on the centennial of his birth in a deeply intimate and broadly evocative memoir.

The composer of On the Town and West Side Story, chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic, television star, humanitarian, friend of the powerful and influential, and the life of every party, Leonard Bernstein was an enormous celebrity during one of the headiest periods of American cultural life, as well as the most protean musician in 20th-century America.

But to his eldest daughter, Jamie, he was above all the man in the scratchy brown bathrobe who smelled of cigarettes; the jokester and compulsive teacher who enthused about Beethoven and the Beatles; the insomniac whose 4 a.m. composing breaks involved spooning baby food out of the jar. He taught his daughter to love the world in all its beauty and complexity. In public and private, Lenny was larger than life.

In Famous Father Girl, Bernstein mines the emotional depths of her childhood and invites us into her family’s private world. A fantastic set of characters populates the Bernsteins’ lives, including: the Kennedys, Mike Nichols, John Lennon, Richard Avedon, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins, and Betty (Lauren) Bacall.

An intoxicating tale, Famous Father Girl is an intimate meditation on a complex and sometimes troubled man, the family he raised, and the music he composed that became the soundtrack to their entwined lives. Deeply moving and often hilarious, Bernstein’s beautifully written memoir is a great American story about one of the greatest Americans of the modern age.

©2018 Jamie Bernstein (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

A Brave and Dazzling Tribute to Bernstein

It’s not easy being the child of an iconic conductor, beloved by people the world over. Jamie brings us so close to her famous father in such an intimate way that we feel like family. She also lets us into his life as a driven, passionate composer, who lived and died for music. Her authenticity and spunky narration left this listener spellbound and quite teary, by the end!

Wonderful in Every Way!

I just finished this wonderfully narrated memoir. My only disappointment is that it was not longer. I’ll plan on attending one of Jamie’s programs with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. Thank you for a memorable audio book.

The details

After watching Maestro I was eager to learn more about the Bernstein family…..listening to Jamie’s book filled in the details …..it was a wonderful experience to have

Engrossing, engaging and full of life!

I love the book. Jamie's life found its full meaning far sooner than she tells in this amazing memoir. Well done.
Dwayne Johnson-Cochran

The talent and intensity of Leonard Bernstein and the seeming stability of his kids—in spite of his indulgent nature.

I especially liked the forthright insider view of the family and their satellite role around “Father Sun.”

A bit too much gee-whizzing

I'm a child of the 60s and Leonard Bernstein was a god to me. West Side Story and Candide changed my life. In the ensuing decades other of his compositions have spoken to me. I was in the audience for rehearsals of Houston Grand Opera's productions of Trouble in Tahiti and A Quiet Place. All that is leading up to saying that I have the greatest respect for the maestro's immense talent.

Jamie Bernstein is a clear-eyed observer and reporter of her and LB's life and relationship. I'm grateful for that. The only criticism that I would offer is that there's a bit too much of the forced cutesy-ness in her childhood stories. The family's in-jokes are not all that funny to an outsider.

Bad narration

I downloaded this for a book club at a local book store. Leonard Bernstein was before my time but, being new to the area, I thought I'd give it a go. You know that voice when a woman narrates and she's trying to do the man's voice? That was this. To top it off, I ended up in the doctor's office and never made it to the book club. Just not my cuppa.

Famous father’s daughtert

Her delivery made it very interesting and details of her dad’s life were facts I didn’t know.

Redefining Lenny

I have been a musician for all my life, but at age 20, I discovered Lenny's Harvard lectures and it was one of the most redefining experiences of my life. Almost like having to reevaluate your life as a musician and thinker. From there I was hooked, and Lenny became the hero of my life. Having said that, to me… this book redefined me once again, almost in the same way that the Norton Lectures had done years ago. You may think that this is a book about Leonard Bernstein and his life… and of course, in a way it is, but it is so much more. The more you listen, the more you realize this is a book about what it means to be human, and to search for your calling in an effective, true to yourself way. THANK YOU Jamie Bernstein for sharing so many anecdotes and insight about not just Lenny the maestro… but Lenny the human. What a ride. And thank you for letting us know you in such a special way and through you, keeping Lenny more alive than ever.

Enrapturing

From beginning to end, this was downright fascinating. What a wonderful perspective to hear about Bernstein‘s life from. Jamie is a wonderful observer and writer. I’ve never read any biographical works about him before but I feel like I’ve listened to the definitive work on him. It was personal, insightful, honest, compassionate and thoughtful. Wish I could listen to it all over again. Highly recommended.